Building The Border Wall?

An International Design Competition to Re-conceptualize the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall

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Building The Border Wall?

An International Design Competition to Re-conceptualize the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall

Donald Trump can make no claim to originality for his proposal to build a wall at the U.S. border with Mexico. The idea of erecting a barrier to keep out foreign invasions of all kinds—military, economic, cultural—is as old as the Great Wall of China. That wall’s effectiveness is still debated among scholars, with some attesting to its role in slowing incursions of raiding nomads and others claiming its only success was in underlying the xenophobia that gave it rise. It is not difficult to draw obvious parallels with the passions being inflamed during the current presidential campaign.

Moving Beyond Politics

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Moving Beyond Politics

Let us be clear: We take no position on this issue. We remain politically neutral. Rather, we are interested in considering the question from a wealth of perspectives. Is it a feasible idea? Can it ever accomplish its purported goals? Can a barrier have architectural merit? If the answers to these questions is no, then what other alternatives can be proposed? Should the existing barriers be torn down? If so, what might replace them?

to Re-THInk, RE-ENVISION, RE-MAKE

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to Re-THInk, RE-ENVISION, RE-MAKE

Meanwhile, the state of the current barrier—a confusion of fencing, corrugated metal sheets, concrete slabs, surveillance cameras, drones and other structures and devices (not to mention 21,000-plus border agents)—is dismal, inefficient and inelegant in a way that respects neither side of the debate. Can the field of architecture create a better solution? We think so. That is the goal of this competition: to apply the discipline's problem-solving and aesthetic capacities to delve beyond the rhetoric and seriously consider the implications of this issue.